Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cake

On By MeghaIn Food

This recipe is very close to my heart, for the simple reason, it holds strong memories of my childhood and is the first cake I ever baked.

A very simple recipe, that can be tried by anyone who hasn’t baked ever in their life and doesn’t even own an oven.

Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cake:

Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cake

Servings : 6 to 7

Difficulty level: Easy

Ingredients:

  • All purpose flour (Maida) – 1.5 cups
  • Cocoa powder – 3 to 4 tbsp
  • Eggs – 2
  • Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
  • Baking powder – 3/4 tsp
  • White sugar – 3/4 cup
  • Butter (salted) – 50 gram
  • Milk – 1 cup

Method:

  • Sift together flour, cocoa and baking powder.
  • In another bowl beat eggs, vanilla essence with sugar till sugar dissolves completely. It takes around 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Add half the flour mixture to the beaten eggs and sugar.
  • Add melted butter.
  • Fold in the remaining flour and mix well.
  • Add milk to make a thick batter while beating continuously. Add milk gradually to obtain a smooth batter.
  • Pour in a well-greased baking pan/ aluminium mould. Gently tap the pan on the working bench to remove air bubbles.
  • In a pressure cooker heat some water and place a cake ring.
  • Once the water comes to a boil, place the cake tin with prepared batter and cook for 30 minutes with closed lid and no weight.
  • Remove lid and let the cake steam for 5 more minutes.
  • Check with a bamboo skewer whether cake is well cooked from all sides (the bamboo skewer should come out clean if cake is cooked through).
  • Let cake cool down and then remove from pan.

P.S.- Coarsely ground walnut kernels go very well with the chocolate cake. The cake doesn’t require icing and is a delightful dessert.

Find other recipes ‘From My Kitchen’ here.

92 thoughts on “Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cake”

  1. Hey, This brings back memories from my childhood too 🙂
    I used to make cooker cake too… the only difference from yours was that it was egg less and baked in the cooker not steamed 🙂

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  5. This reminds me of my college days! Staying up nights studying we used to crave chocolate cake and yet we didn’t have an oven. So we’d mix up the batter and pop it into a pressure cooker!

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  6. Bikram

    OH teri.. this is good one . but what is a cake ring, I dont have that 😦 or where will i get it from I doubt if the indian grocery shop will have them here ..

    You know once when I was in 8th class me and my best friend planned to make a cake 🙂 but instead of the Maida we added BESAN , you know that yellow flour but still it was quite goood i must say 🙂

    This i will try for sure

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    1. Cake ring is a ring made of metal to balance the cake pan/ cake tin inside the pressure cooker so that the cake tin stays well above the water and no water gets in the cake.
      You can use any steel utensil that will balance the cake pan without allowing it to topple, you don’t need buy it anywhere 😀 😀

      It doesn’t matter if you used besan, the most important part is you guys tried 😀 😀

      Make this Bikram, it is easy and very quick to make…am waiting to hear how it turned out 😀

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  8. Need to buy a baking pan and start experimenting. Trying to control my diet hence restricting myself 😛

    We actually have a grill/baking oven in our new home so definitely need to try it out more. Problem is, I haven’t operated one before 😛 🙄 😦 Doesn’t mean I can’t learn though!!

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    1. off-course you can learn anytime 😀
      As for this cake you can use any container that can go inside the biggest pressure cooker you’ve got.
      Since you already have an oven at home, that opens doors to culinary heaven automatically 😀

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  11. OMG! I didn’t know we could make cakes in a pressure cooker!!! 😯

    This is awesome and chocolate cake’s my favorite! 😀
    I’m sure gonna try this! 🙂

    Thank you ME, thank you!!! 😀

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  14. mouth watering.. which one should I try first the jack fruit gravy or this choco cake? I am confused 🙂 I had never baked choco cake at home.. will try this soon.. thanks for this recipe ME..

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    1. I’ll do that eggless cake soon Bhagyashree 😀 (if not, I’ll e-mail you the recipe :D)
      Yup you got to steam it if you want to bake a cake in pressure cooker to avoid any damage to the pressure cooker for we are cooking for a long time 🙂

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      1. Sorry for intruding. But you can bake in a pressure cooker too. Just pre heat the cooker and don’t add water. Keep the cake ring and your baking dish above it. Now cover the cooker with a heavy lid (you can use a plate) and let it bake. You can use the bamboo skewer test to see if the cake is cooked. Use a large bottom pressure cooker (like prestige 5 lt.) and a large bottom baking dish that fits in 🙂

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        1. Thank you for that tip lifesong, I had never tried anything in pressure cooker w/o water.
          I had used a 5 lt. Prestige for this one too.
          I am glad you shared your tip, it’ll help everyone….you weren’t intruding sweetie 🙂

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      2. I had read somewhere that if the gasket is removed and no water is put then cake will be almost like the oven cake
        But I am scared to try. I don’t have OTG, but I bake in the microwave. Baking in microwave is ok but have to be very alert because even a second more means that the cake will be dry

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        1. I have tried cakes in microwave and I so agree with you Bhagyashree, you got to be very cautious about the time and wattage of your microwave oven to abide by any recipe.
          See Lifesong’s comment for baking in pressure cooker w/o water.

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  17. Pressure cooker cake and what… looks very very easy to make… you are such a great cook ME.. I usually bake in the Otg.. this is the first time I hearing an easy pressure cooker cake recipe.. may be i will adopt this recipe for my baking next time in otg…will it work?

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    1. Like Bhagyashree you are looking for an egg-less version, well to keep the recipe same and just omit eggs add 3/4 to 1 cup of condensed milk.
      That’ll give the same result 😀

      Don’t forget to omit the sugar and milk, for condensed milk itself is quite sweet and is milk itself.

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  27. Jane

    Can you please tell how much water should go in the pressure cooker. Also what is temperature for the first 30 minutes. Boiling water or bring it to a low?

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    1. Let the water come to a boil before placing the cake tin in the cooker. As far the measure of water, around one and half glass of water should be fine. Please make sure the water is below the level of the cake tin to avoid soaking the cake mixture when finally steaming.

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    2. Let the water come to a boil before placing the cake tin in the cooker. Then reduce the flame once the cake is in the cooker to allow gradual cooking.
      As far the measure of water, around one and half glass of water should be fine. Please make sure the water is below the level of the cake tin to avoid soaking the cake mixture when finally steaming.

      Like

  28. Sia

    Aww you have reminded me of my childhood. With no microwave or oven, pressure cooker cakes was the only solace..
    I am going to try this soon :0..Hey btw can I bake the same recipe in Microwave too? Like I usually do – preheat at 180 c and bake for 30 mins?

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  29. Romy

    It looks so easy , but i still doubt whether i will make it or mess it up.
    Then will get scolding from mom :p
    Please can you tell me which material utensil should be used, i never saw people baking in steel utensils, so just wanted to confirm.
    And thinking of trying it out this Sunday 🙂

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    1. Hi Romy, for baking it’s best to use Aluminium dishes, you can even use a stainless steel dish without harm, just remember to grease it very well.
      Do let me know how the cake turned out 🙂

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      1. I tried the cake.. I think I followed the instructions closely, lol, but I must have messed up somewhere, because the cake didnt rise at all.. it was like really dense, n heavy.. n i think it took almost an hour to cook through, n it was still really soft n moist in the middle.. could u please tell me where I went wrong? thank u so much.. 🙂

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        1. I am sorry to learn your cake didn’t turn out too well. Though am an amateur baker but reading your query the first thing I could think of is your baking dish should be no less than 6 to 7 inches in diameter to allow even and thorough cooking allowing steam to penetrate well. Besides, make sure you add flour mixture to the egg + sugar mixture in increments while mixing well to allow a homogeneous mix to form. I hope that helps

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  32. swetha

    it is so yummy.i v ll prepare this cake…soon i am gonna 2 try this .in my home i don’t have micro oven in my home thank you for this idea .

    Like

  34. charmi

    hi guys I wanted to know can I use a still container as baking pan inside the pressure cooker.Moreover I have heard that while baking cake in pressure cooker you dont need to add water,apply insulation ring and whistle?

    please guide me.I want to bake it for my anniversary as I dont have an Oven baking pan

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    1. Many people cook without water but that puts your pressure cooker to be badly burnt in the process. I used water but no whistle so that the cake can steam. It’s something like steaming the Idli
      Use any thick steel or aluminium pan for baking.

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  36. Ruby

    Do we need to remove the gasket (rubber) also along with the whistle. I have read somewhere abt this so just got confused. Plz help. And can i use a steel separator/stand and aluminium vessel/cake pan together?

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    1. No I did not remove the gasket to ensure the cooker closes tightly, ensuring no steam escape. Don’t put the whistle on and you are good to steam. Yes, a thick bottomed steel utensil and an aluminium separator are good to be used as cake tin. I hope this helps.

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  37. Elizabeth

    Hey ME, if its not a problem then could u tell the weight of maida n sugar in gms or the volume of cup used to measure the same

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    1. Hey Elizabeth,
      I know it sounds silly, but I have never weighed the Maida or Sugar while baking in all these years. The trick I use is, use a tea cup (not a mug)to measure all ingredients so that the ratio stays constant being measured by one cup. Keep that tea-cup aside for baking use. Since all sponge cakes use equal sugar & maida proportion, I have never faced an issue here.
      Sorry dear for not being much of a help.

      Like

  38. aparajita tripathi

    this is amazing…. today is my sister’s bday i am gonna try it today itself… 🙂 thank you ma’am
    just one query.. i don’t have cake tin so can can use a steel container instead?
    would it affect the cake in any way?
    and instead of egg can i use condensed milk and butter?

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    1. Hi Aparajita,
      Yes, you can use any other container but it needs to be thick. If you’ve got a pressure cooker separator that works just perfect. If not, try finding an aluminium dish ( cause they are usually thicker than usual steel utensils).

      To skip the egg if you are using the milkmaid (condensed milk) I’d recommend you go with an eggless recipe & not just replace the eggs in my recipe. This is because, with condensed milk the amount of sugar & milk to be added needs to change as well.

      I hope this helps and yes, you can bake any sponge cake in a pressure cooker. So go for a recipe you love.

      A very happy birthday to your sister.

      Please do let me know how the cake turned out 🙂

      Like

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